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Reluctance keeps women off nation's opinion pages

Whatever other reasons may explain the lack of women's voices on the nation's op-ed pages, the lack of women asking to be there clearly is part of the problem.

Many opinion page editors at major newspapers across the country say that 65 percent or 75 percent of unsolicited manuscripts, or more, come from men.

The obvious solution, at least to Catherine Orenstein, an author, activist and occasional op-ed page contributor herself, was to get more women to submit essays. To that end Orenstein has been training women at universities, foundations and corporations to write essays and get them published.

"It's a teachable form," Orenstein said recently over coffee and eggs. "It's not like writing Hemingway. You show people the basics of a good argument, what constitutes good evidence, what's a news hook."

Over the past 18 months several hundred women and men (though in fewer numbers) have taken the seminar, which can cost a group up to $5,000, Orenstein said (although she has also donated her services). She has not kept records, but she said about two dozen former students have sent her clips of their published essays to say thank you. Suzanne Grossman at Woodhull did not have comprehensive statistics but said that the first pilot session for a dozen women at a Woodhull retreat produced 12 op-ed articles. (Some participants wrote more than one.)

A powerful forum

"I try to convey the idea that there is a responsibility," she said. "Op-ed pages are so enormously powerful. It's one of the few places open to the public. Where else is someone like me going to get access? It's not like I can call up the White House: 'Hello?' "

About 30 women, who also are not in the habit of calling up the White House, gathered on a recent Monday evening for one of Orenstein's seminars. Eighteen, mostly from non-profit organizations, sat around a large conference table in Manhattan against a dazzling backdrop of New York City's skyline at sunset, while a dozen or so listened in through a speaker phone in Washington.

They had been invited by SheSource, an online database of women experts, financed by the White House Project, a women's leadership organization, Fenton Communications and the Women's Funding Network.

Exploring your expertise

Orenstein asked: Could every woman at the large rectangular table name one specific subject that she is an expert in and say why? The author of "Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale," Orenstein began by saying, "Little Red Riding Hood" and writing the words in orange marker on an oversize white pad.

Of the next four women who spoke, three started with a qualification or apology. "I'm really too young to be an expert in anything," said Caitlin Petre, 23.

"Let's stop," Orenstein said. "It happens in every single session I do with women, and it's never happened with men." Women tend to back away from "what we know and why we know it," she said.

Next she asked the participants why they thought it important to write op-ed articles. Women shouted: "Change the world," "shape public debate," "offer a new perspective," "influence public policy."

"You are all such do-gooders," Orenstein said, laughing, "I love this." She then proceeded to create another kind of list that included fame, money, offers of books, television series and jobs.

Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, an Episcopal priest and the executive director of Political Research Associates in Boston, frowned. "It's not why I do it," she said.

That, Orenstein declared, is a typically female response: "I never had a man say, 'That's not why I do it.' "

"What I want to suggest to you," Orenstein said, is that the personal and the public interests are not at odds, and "the belief that they are mutually exclusive has kept women out of power."

Cristina Page, a spokeswoman for Birth Control Watch in Washington, leaned forward. "I've never heard anyone say that before," she said. "What you've just said is so important. It's liberating."

Other attendees were similarly enthusiastic after the 2 1/2-hour session. Maureen Lane, a professor at Hunter College and a member of the Drum Major Institute, a research think tank, had taken a longer version of the op-ed writing seminar about 18 months earlier. "It takes me a while to learn," she said of her repeat visit. "This is not just 'how you buy real estate and make a fortune,' " she said. "This is thought through."

A basic formula

During the seminar Orenstein laid out a basic formula for writing a 750-word op-ed piece (with the caution that "common sense trumps everything I say"): a lead connected to a news hook, a thesis, three points of evidence, conclusion. And don't forget the "to be sure" paragraph in order to pre-empt your opponents' comeback, she instructed.